A Catholic Church in the state of Rhode Island in the United States is taking a step back in time through a makeover.
Officials of the St. Mary's Church in Newport are starting some restoration work on the place of worship to match its appearance back in 1953—when then senator and would-be-President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier got married.
In an interview with The Daily Mail, Rev. Kris von Maluski said he and other officials found a photograph of the St. Mary's Church from 1937, and used it as a blueprint for the ongoing restoration work.
It is their hope, he said, that after the renovation, the result will match "what we think it may have looked like" when the Kennedys married.
"They would have walked down the aisle seeing, hopefully, what we put up again," he said, stressing the important role played by former President Kennedy in American history.
The St. Mary's Church was built between 1848 and 1852, and is a national historic shrine.
Part of the restoration work is replacing the casework and pipes of an organ installed in the church five years after the Kennedys' wedding, to be able to match the Gothic style of the entire place of worship.
To be able to fund these efforts, the church officials have launched a fundraising campaign. The restoration work will cost $600,000 for refurbishing the organ, $200,000 to reconstruct the choir left, and some additional money to maintain the instrument and provide musical scholarships and programmes.
"We look at this as a musical project as well as an architectural project," Rev. Von Maluski explained.
He added that church officials hope the place will attract more tourists, especially those interested in the lives of the Kennedys, after the restoration work. Every summer, the church holds a special programme called "Return to Camelot," when they play videos of the Kennedys' wedding accompanied by music from the organ.
